Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a platform for aligning a drill bit.
Description of the Prior Art
The Pinewood Derby is an annual Boy Scouts of America event which provides the opportunity for over one million Cub Scouts and their parents, in a team effort, to design and prepare a winning derby car. Other organizations participate in similar model car racing events including Awana Grand Prix, Awana international, Native American Sons and Daughters, Kub Kar scouting. This is our audience.
Children, 7 through 11 ½ years of age, along with a parent, work together to develop a model wooden car with emphasis on design and/or speed. For speed there are basic principles of weight distribution generally providing for weight loading toward the rear of the car to optimize the potential energy. Racing rules generally permit a maximum car weight of 5 ounces. Moreover, weights added on to the top and bottom surfaces of the car to achieve the optimal weight of 5 ounces can compromise speed by offering protruding surfaces for turbulence and air resistance, as the car races down the track. Additional weight loading is, therefore, best placed within the wood body of the car.
There has been a longstanding need for a simple device to enable a child to place pockets to load flat weights or to place channels to load cylindrical weights within the wood body of the car. Square or rectangular pockets to insert flat weights which are commercially available are difficult for the child to create without the use of chisels or special rotary tools. A uniform depth with square corners throughout the pocket can be both difficult to achieve and very time consuming. Direct adult assistance is usually required.
A simple structural workstation device was conceived to address this concern. The device enables the Cub Scout to create:
a. multiple, parallel, immediately adjacent, cylindrical channels toward the rear of the model car for optimal weight loading of cylindrical weights.
b. precision placement of drill bit holes in a manner to avoid breaching the top, side or bottom surfaces of the car design.
c. precision placement of weight loading channels to avoid breaching the axle grooves that are placed during the manufacturing of the rectangular wood blocks provided for the Pinewood Derby car events.
The three dimensional workpiece support/drill jig alignment embodiment has been reduced to practice. A prototype has been built and has performed with precision. Cylindrical model car weights are commercially available. The marketing potential is formidable.
Traditionally, cylindrical weights are loaded into the wood body of the model car using a hand drill or rotary tool. Multiple channels may be required to achieve the desired total car weight. Measurements for channel placement are carefully made on the rectangular block of wood which has been manufactured to specification for Pinewood Derby car events. The individual car design selected by the child may make channel placement considerations more difficult if the workpiece surfaces are no longer linear and square.
The child, with adult supervision, utilizing the hand drill with drill bit of predetermined size has to sight down the center of the car as he advances the drill bit into the back of the car. The parent or supervising adult has to sight from the side noting the direction of the drill bit, top to bottom on the car. This dual sighting in this free, hand-held traditional technique can be difficult and can be frustrating when a surface of the car has been breached. This occurs when the central axis of the drill hole is not parallel to the bottom or side of the car. This also makes it more difficult to introduce a second or third hole into the back of the car for additional weight placement. The channels cannot overlap if the cylindrical weights are to load freely.
Another alternative for a more precision placement of cylindrical channels has been with the use of a drill press. The technique has traditionally been described in Pinewood Derby car workbooks. Special machine shop equipment including the drill press is not universally available to the child/parent team and Cub Scout participation, with concern for safety, is limited in this drill press application. Moreover, an irregular shaped model car with few flat, linear surfaces may be difficult to hold and position on the drill press platform. The three dimensional workpiece support with drill jig alignment provided by the proposed embodiment was designed to compensate for irregular workpieces.
Various devices have been designed to assist the Cub Scout in the placement of holes to align axles in the wood body of the model car. These devices are specifically for placement of the wheel axles.
The U.S. Pat. No. 20140178141 to Gargiulo discloses an adjustable drill guide which is specifically designed to provide holes to accurately place axles and eyelets into the model car. These are not multiple aligned, immediately adjacent, parallel channels.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 6,904,694 to Launius discloses a wood body tool to accurately place axle holes into the wood axle slots of the model car. Again, these are not, parallel, immediately adjacent, aligned channels. The axle holes are placed and guided within the axle slots already in position at the bottom of the car.
The use of Jigs to guide drill bits is well known in prior art toward the placement of channels in wood, metal or other materials in a specific orientation. Jigs have been designed for purposes as varied as vehicle axle repair, support guides for dental implants, CNC machines and, more specifically, with relevance to woodworking embodiments, for the joining of wood surfaces in specific configurations utilizing dowels, screws or bolts.
U.S. Pat. No. 2004110687 to Davis discloses a doweling jig for wood working, specifying clamping devices to fix the Jig to the workpiece. Holes are drilled to receive dowels to join workpieces. The holes are not multiple, aligned or immediately adjacent and three dimensional support to the workpiece is not described.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,726,916 to MacKenzie discloses a doweling jig comprised of two spaced rails which facilitates a slidable drill bit guide. The device, affixed to one surface of the workpiece, is complex. Small, hand-held workpieces could be difficult to secure.
These patents and other drill jig alignment patents may well provide for their particular objectives. Many are complex devices for large workpieces which do not permit hand-held operations for small workpieces, 2 to 10 cm in size. Moreover, utilization by a child is limited, even with adult supervision. A simple, L-shaped housing device is presented which provides for three surface support to a small, hand held workpiece with drill bit alignment for the placement of parallel, immediately adjacent, aligned weight loading holes in a model car.
Precision weight loading within the wood body of the derby car is essential to maximize the potential energy. As the front of the car clears the sloped portion of the race track, the rear weight is still falling. The weight must be as far back as possible so that the force of gravity continues to propel the car as long as possible. The center of car balance is best 1 to 1¼ inch in front of the rear axle. It is important, therefore, for the child to strategically position the car weights with precision. This is difficult to do as we have noted with the traditional technique of using hand/eye coordination to sight and direct the direction of the drill bit as channels are being drilled with a hand-held electric drill. The car side, bottom and top surfaces are easily breached if channel alignment is not parallel to the central axis of the model car. Moreover, when multiple channels are needed for weighting, immediately adjacent channels may be breached and not allow the cylindrical weights to freely enter the respective channels.
The present embodiment overcomes any limitations of prior art toward the specific objective presented, in the setting of child participation. The Cub Scout, with parent assistance, can now create channels for precision alignment of model car weights in variable car designs. Moreover, the device with unique three dimensional support to the small workpiece provides for a secure and more precise placement and alignment to the drill bit guide.